Seed Starting

My sister and I love to garden, both flowers and vegetables. It’s a passion and trait we got from our grandmother. Growing up at Grandma and Grandpa’s the summers were filled with working in the half-acre vegetable garden and planting and tending to the flower beds and numerous flower pots around the house and yard. It is funny thinking back with such fond memories when I also remember not always enjoying it at the time! Regardless of the mixed memories, we learned much about gardening, which we both treasure and appreciate today.

A year ago I decided to try my hand with seed starting indoors, something we didn’t do when we were young. With seed catalogs coming in the mail, and looking through garden magazines, it seemed like a good way to get a jump start on the season as well as pass the time during winter’s not-so-pleasant months. I got my sister in on the pre-growing season excitement as well. We had several discussions on what vegetables to grow for summer eating as well as what we wanted for canning and freezing. As I have a basement, it was easy for me to house the operation. I purchased some grow lights, seeds, starting trays, and heat mats and we were off to the races.

While I consider last year a success, there definitely were lessons learned. For example, I have longer chains for the grow lights to hang them closer to the seedlings to reduce their leggy nature. The humidity domes were removed earlier which eliminated mold growth on top of the soil and the heat mats were turned off once the seedlings emerged. The last thing I didn’t have last year was a rotating fan lightly blowing on the seedlings. This should help with the strength of the young plants. So far so good.

There is real satisfaction in growing your own plants. While there is time one puts into the process, it is much cheaper to buy a packet of seeds rather than plants from a nursery. I’m excited to see how this season of growing turns out.

Happy growing!